Living in the Spirit

November 16, 2020

Scripture Reading:
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice. –Ezekiel 34:11-16

Do you think Jesus studied and followed Ezekiel’s wisdom? A reading of Matthew 25 suggests that. Ezekiel wrote from the experience of going into and living in exile, a very dark time in Israel’s history. I am not suggesting that we are experiencing that same depth of loss but life sure feels challenging these days with COVID-19 running amok and extreme division in our nation, cause a sense of a very lost people who are turning and turning away from and toward a variety of temptations full of empty solutions. I did not live through the bubonic plague or the great depression, but in my lifetime, I have never seen anything universally resulting in such despair and hopelessness. It is time for the whole Body of Christ to reach out in the love of God and fulfill our mission. We need to put aside all the issues that divide us and come together in the oneness Christ desired for us. Ezekiel sets forth an excellent plan to initiate the work. Ezekiel instructs us to:

1. Search and seek out one another. We need to talk to each other and more importantly listen to each other. Seek the root cause of the sense of loss that seems so prevalent among people.
2. Bring light into the lives of all people as we work to rescue from darkness those who have lost hope.
3. Help those who are lost in despair bring them out of mental exile and return them to wholeness and strength within themselves.
4. Feed those who need physical nourishment but also spiritual nourishment to restore their souls.
5. Give all rest to recover from trauma and stress, allowing people to experience God’s peace.
6. Seek the lost bring back the strayed. The first search and seek in this list includes all of us. This one seeking the lost specifies ones who have strayed from and will not find their way to wholeness without our help.
7. Bind the injured and strengthen the weak healing of our bodies as well as our souls.
8. Finally, Ezekiel calls us to feed the unjust with justice.

Prayer: Lord, create in us clean hearts and right spirits as we set forth to be your Body in our world today. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.